Category: Musings

[Tweet “When we are surrounding by those all facing one way, if we’re called to face the other, we should.”]

Click for full size

The past few days were spent in my home town. I stayed with my sister who is a terrific human being. She can make me laugh until I snort! I lazed about her home while she and her husband worked. Yes, indeed, it was a lovely rest! I also got to hang out with my soon-to-be thirteen-years-old niece. I can’t begin to tell you what a fascinating young woman she’s turning out to be.

While I was there, I took pictures. This home is new to me so it was fun to explore. Built in 1908, it faces a levee where I remember many fun times including sledding and watching submarine races with a few boys–ahem!

She has a small square of horsetails that have been allowed, encouraged even, to grow tall. You can’t see it in this shot, but there is a Japanese glass fishing float in the midst. My sister told me she likes it better when the horsetails are trimmed down.

Me? I like them like this. I particularly like the one that’s broken then kept on growing its own way. It reminds me that we should all grow our own way. Even when we are surrounding by those all facing one way, if we are called to face the other, we should.

Today I grow my own way. Today I curve in the direction that calls to me. Today I put my mind on my own business because it’s important. I let go of my need to run other people’s business. Today I grow my own way. I am strong enough. I am beautiful enough. I am enough. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Sometimes I just have to sit back. I need to remember to enjoy the journey. When I don’t have a particular goal, destination, step in mind, I can learn so much just by simply being.

A year ago, maybe two, my then boyfriend (now husband) and I journeyed to Caps Rock Canyon in west Texas. We wandered. We roamed. We just ambled. He found bobcat tracks in one area. In another we watched birds swoop and soar on the winds.

[Tweet “Where will joy take you today?”]

Today I envelop myself in joy. I take advantage of the happiness in the world. I release my need to wallow in sadness. I invoke my higher happier self. I give myself up to the Universal joy winds. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Short and sweet: #dailyaffirmation #affirmation Today I dance when I hear something that moves my feet, sways my hips and opens my heart. Today I laugh out loud for the pleasure of feeling my belly bounce under my chuckles. Today I love my entire self without judging it too large, too small, too anything other than just right for who I am right now. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Today’s card reminds me that hula hoops are an important metaphor in my life. This goes back to something my sister told me. I can’t remember who told her but the saying goes like this.

I can only control what is in my own hula hoop.

So stand up. Now hold your arms out as if you were holding a hula hoop about yourself. Swing your arms to the front and back and to the sides. Get a feel for how much space that is.

You control everything inside that hula hoop area. It’s all yours. You are mistress or master of your domain. Anyone inside that circumference must bow to your wishes.

Anything outside of that circumference?

Repeat after me…not my circus, not my monekys.

If we all focused less on the trauma-drama of others, how much happier we would be. If we simply provided space to listen them and let go of trying to fix them, we could get to the real meat of our day.

Our own stuff.

Yep, it’s a really highly developed procrastination technique. The more I can worry about your shit, the less I have to work on my own.

[Tweet “So which will it be today? Useless worry or meaningful work? It’s your choice.”]

Today I focus on my own needs. Today I listen to others and let go of any misguided notion of fixing them. I am in charge of my own experience. I can only control what is in my own hula hoop. Loved and loving, I love each of you.

So where do you want to go? What journeys call to you? Are they distant horizons? Inspiring vistas? Local haunts? What places do you dream of going?

I am a true Pisces in that I long to go and hate to leave. I push for the outer waves while clinging to the rocky shores. I’ve learned that I can feed my need to see, to go, to be by reading. [Tweet “I can escape into so many places, so many worlds.”]

As a little girl I used to read the L. Frank Baum (or is it Frank L.?) Oz series. I read them all from the Wizard in Oz to TickTock of Oz and more. I thought of Button and her hen as my own best friends. The patchwork girl too.

That journeying has never stopped. Now I have more control over those journeys because I can write them as well. The idea of linking noun to verb to create a sentence thrilled me from the get-go. Who knew you could have that kind of power just from words on paper?

So what about you? What books carried you away? What movies entranced you? What mystical, magical places did you journey to? i want to know.

Today I journey where I like. I wander old familiar places. I set my heart down unknown paths. I explore the inner and outer worlds. I am a joy-seeking traveler. I find wonder where I wander. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Daily spiritual practices are something I am trying to get back to in a more consistent way. Consistency and I are not always the best of pals.

Today’s card comes from a question I answered that Joanna Powell Colbert asked in her Gaian Soul Circle Community which is a private online community. If you haven’t joined to check it out, I hope you will.

But Joanna asked us to share about our daily spiritual practices. I wanted to share my answer here with you as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daily spiritual practices are something I am trying to get back to in a more consistent way. [Tweet “Consistency and I are not always the best of pals.”]

I was doing daily affirmations and flowed away from those. I flowed back today.

Flow is an interesting choice of words since my daily card was the Explorer of Water. I just realized that to ride the wave in, he has to ride the wave out.

To get where I love to be, I must ride the wave in as often as I ride it out. I let the water carry me forward to new and out to those scary places that I must experience. Then I come home to the shore. It’s a cycle and it fits my very Piscean nature.

Joanna shares this on her page. “His ally is Dolphin, who offers the gifts of balance, harmony and the wisdom of deep breathing.”

Is it any surprise that I’ve been working with an app that helps you focus on how to breathe? No, I didn’t think so.

I am reminded of a poem that I wrote in 1999.
Tumbling

Tumbling at the ocean’s edge,
I am a starfish pulling myself in
A sea turtle pushing myself out.
Five pointed star,
Or sea-shelled creature
Will you still love them both?

Head out, Head in,
Or regeneration.
Which would you hate?
Which would you love?
Will you be a quiet pool
that I seek refuge in?

Tidepool sunlight on wet sand,
and no depths for me to hide in.
Will you cover me with the
salty water of your love,
insisting that I stay in the light?

If the tide calls back for me
and I am carried away once more
will you be there when I return,
a quiet pool for me?

Well then, I guess we better point out what a craptastic snail the cheetah is.

Today is not a card day. Today is about something small and modest. Today is about ownership. Today is about being proud of what I can do. It is, in the end, about snails and cheetahs.

This post was sparked by something a friend said on their Facebook. They spoke of how it saddened them to see inspirational posts and photos and quotes about how they could do anything they set their mind to do.

You see, my friend has a chronic illness. For them, a good day is a day that doesn’t require a nap. I responded to their post with this,

“Defeatist thinking? That’s not defeatist thinking! That’s understanding what you can do. I certainly can’t run a marathon (don’t really want to either, thanks). I rewrite those things into things I can do. Like…walking more than half a block is a goal right now. Fuck defeatist thinking because that…well, that defeats the whole purpose. Seek joy on your own terms. If joy today is making it through cleaning up the kitchen, then celebrate that. You get to set YOUR own damned goals of happiness. So there.”

And I mean that. My garden is my example of this. Would I like a yard that has twisting paths with sudden explosions of color? Where animals come to play? Where I can stroll out to have a cup of tea under a weeping willow tree?

Heck yeah.

But the realities of my circumstances are that I live in a condo where I can container garden only. I have a bad back so sometimes I have to sit my ass on the concrete to scoop dirt into pots (and that, my friends is a luxury that some don’t have…the ability to get up and down from the concrete!). I (and my darling husband and my stepson when he lived here) recycle pots that others throw out.

I work with what I have and am joyful for that work. I can’t hold myself to anyone else’s standards (or sub standards for that matter.) What I need is to be true to my own precious self.

So my garden is what you see in the picture. Six salvia plants, two petunias, bell peppers, jalapenos and tomatoes. Not a twisting path in sight unless you count the dirt that fell out of the bag. I turned that to mud when I dragged the hose over to water.

And I am inordinately proud of my little patio mess. I own it. It’s me. It’s all me.

So, looping back to my response to my friend’s words…I want you all to give yourself permission to do what you can and a bit more. If your “bit more” is skipping 30 minutes of an hour nap, then good on you. Whatever your “bit more” is, that’s your inspirational challenge. So what if it is “empty the dishwasher in one session instead of two”? Who the heck cares? You did something that challenges YOU.

And that, my loves, that is what is important. Challenge yourself.

A snail doesn’t set out to beat a cheetah. It sets out to get where it wants to go.

Isn’t that enough? The snail knows it can’t compete with the cheetah, but you know what? I’ll bet the cheetah can’t compete with the snail either. Does the cheetah have the ability to carry its own den with it? NO?

[Tweet “Well then, I guess we better point out what a craptastic snail the cheetah is.”]

Do a little jig in the middle of the market because HEY you got such a deal! Accept all the knowing nods from those others who are smart enough to join you at the market

Day four of my wedding trip…wedding bells are definitely ringing this morning.

I’m sharing some favorite posts from my Tarot & Food entries.

Revisiting: Squashed Chicken

Go to the Farmer’s Market and be seduced by the lovely sunny yellowness that is summer squash. Buy some garlic because it’s 2 for a buck! Get three lovely sunny yellow summer squash for a buck. Do a little jig in the middle of the market because HEY you got such a deal! Accept all the knowing nods from those others who are smart enough to join you at the market. more…

Get a free three card reading via email when you buy the download version of this workbook. Offer expires 1/30/204. All readings must be claimed by 2/7/2014.

She wasn’t the cookie-baking, soccer mom but she was the take-you-to-the-library, defend-you-tooth-and-nail mom. I’m lucky to have had the time I did with her. So she is the Queen of Swords to me. more…

Get a free three card reading via email when you buy the download version of this workbook. Offer expires 1/30/204. All readings must be claimed by 2/7/2014.

The message I’m getting today is that adversity was overcome here. But overcome isn’t the right word. More like–absorbed. It’s as if the woman said, ….

Shadowscapes Tarot

Today’s card takes me a bit far afield from the actual meaning. Traditionally this card is about success but more so enjoying that success. It’s about reviewing what you’ve done and what’s to come.

So it’s a perfect card for me today because I am working on my workbook (http://bit.ly/TbAIncred). I’m also working on a guest post that has me super excited. 😀 Still, I look at this card and I don’t think “enjoy your successes.”

Instead I think, “Wow…look at this. The piano has a tree growing right through it.” And then I think the woman is using a snail shell for her piano bench. Is that comfortable?

The message I’m getting today is that adversity was overcome here. But overcome isn’t the right word. More like–absorbed. It’s as if the woman said, “Okay, I see you. All you problems. All you worries. All you sorrows. I see you and I accept you. And I incorporate you into my daily life. I own you. And by owning you, I control you.”

Then the tree through the piano becomes a triumph of living one’s life as one wants rather than negotiating those that might stop us. The tree is now a part, heart and soul, of the thing that brings her joy.

And isn’t that an amazing gift to give ourselves? Check back through 2013 right now. What adversities did you absorb? Live through? Engage in? Make a part of your new self?

[Tweet “The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” -Charles Du Bos”]

Make a vow for 2014 to absorb all adversity. Make it part of your world so you can control it.

Posts navigation

Join The Joy Tribe!Only way to get Tarotscopes now plus first look at lesson videos and free exclusive reading sessions.
Buy the bookSubscribe to get my free book on Intuitive Tarot10 Fairy Tale Tarot Spreads with art by Lisa Hunt